Taming the Paper Beast

I vividly remember the day that I needed to do something about my clutter. A sitter was coming over (one of the few times we’ve ever paid anyone to watch our kids – you’re lucky, Emily) and my house was a mess.

Photo: FeatheredTar

And to top it all off, there was a pile of papers and notebooks taking up half our table. So I did what I knew best – I made pretty, organized piles. Ha! I was embarrassed. I couldn’t use my table because there was so much stuff on it. And I couldn’t move it anywhere, because there was so much stuff everywhere else! It was a turning point.

I had to tame the paper pile beast.

It was daunting. What if I needed to keep some of it? What if I threw something away, only to realize later that I needed it? What if, what if, what if?

What if none of that happened?

It didn’t. Part of taming the beast meant letting go of fear. I was afraid that getting rid of this paperwork would ruin my life somehow. It’s silly, right? But come on, I’m not the only one who’s thought this. I let the paper control me, allowed it to dictate how my house looked. And I didn’t need to.

It took some time, on multiple occasions, to get through the piles. I went through every paper in my house. Ok, maybe not every paper. I eventually got to the point where I said, “I haven’t even looked in this file for two years, I don’t need it!” But they’re gone.

And I put a few systems in place to keep it from happening again. Because there are far better things to do than geting paper cuts from my oooooold tax returns.

Don’t let it come in

Prevention is the best method. If you’re constantly getting those catalogs from Oriental Trading Company, call them and ask them to stop. It takes just a few minutes of your time, but it works (usually).

Make all of your bills paperless so that they go straight to your inbox. It’s far less likely that you’ll lose them there.

Address it immediately

This was my most difficult habit to develop. The easiest way to combat paper clutter (after preventing it, of course), is to address it as soon as it comes in your house. And really, it only takes a few minutes.

Call the companies that need to be called to remove you from their lists, file pieces that are absolutely crucial to keep, digitize what you need to and throw the usable scratch pieces in a basket.

Digitize, digitize, digitize

When I came to a paper that I couldn’t throw away, I thought, “do I need the paper itself or the information on it?” Usually, it was the latter.

So I either scanned the paper and put it in a file on my computer (which was never again opened, by the way, time to delete that), or I would type up the notes in a Google doc. It seems that I like to write tiny notes on huge pieces of paper and then save them forever.

Recycle basket

I started this the last time we moved because I wanted to stop the “throw away barely-used paper” habit. So I grabbed a fairly deep basket and named it my “reuse/burn box.” It lives in the hall closet on top of the extra newspapers we have for starting our morning fires.

I like scribbling notes and feel better about doing it on a scratch piece of paper. It’s a good baby step, too, if you’re hesitant about throwing away papers. Once it gets full, get rid of the contents. (Anyone have good ideas for that? We can use ours for fire starter, but could you shred it and compost it or just compost it???)

Over the last year, I’ve gone from a little filing cabinet to a stuffed-to-the max accordian file thingy, to a 1/4-full accordian file thingy. My desk stays fairly clean and my table is always available for use. It’s a good feeling.

I have yet to start paying for a sitter, though.

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This post was written by

Nina Nelson – who has written 205 posts on Shalom Mama.

Nina Nelson is a freelance writer, mama to four and wife to one. She writes regularly about minimalism, living more sustainably and living more intentionally. She loves reading, snuggling and giggling at miniature horses.

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